Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

[Handyman]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

So the night begins with me sitting alone in the VIP room. The room is maybe 400 square feet and there is one table for 12 people including The Donald. Outside of a certain television station owning family no one is recognizable. Slowly the gang of twelve star trickling in. They are all quite happy, though all of them have that look of "we got to hope he isnt the train wreck we think he is" on their face. I make some small talk as they get free drinks (and dont tip) and all of them seem to acknowledge that they are hopeful but ultimately they know things arent going well. One nice lady talks about the lack of jobs and how he needs to fix it...she didnt seem to get why someone paying $100k to gladhand The Donald probably has no clue what it is like out there right now.

Right about now my boss comes by and takes my cell phone. The Donald and his staff wont allow any non donation people to get any keepsakes. (though one of my upper level bosses snuck in her phone for pictures) That is fine, probably better as I would have recorded or live tweeted the whole thing!

People are still chatting and wondering aloud what they plan to ask His Royal Donaldness. The TV Owner has a few questions and the rest have plenty as well. They all have that air about them of needing to be convinced to vote for him. TV Owner questions whether they should stand up for "The President" when he walks in and the idea is met with mixed responses. He says he will do what everyone else does as he is a follower...that gets a laugh.

BOOM! The door opens and THE DONALD HAS ARRIVED!!! He comes in with his assorted staff and his new General Friend. Apparently Giuliani is no longer the guy sent out to make sure that The Donald doesnt screw up. The Donald shakes hands and says hello but only stops to really talk to TV Owner and his wife. Everyone else gets 10 seconds, TV Owner gets 2-3 minutes. It should also be noted that The Donald walked within 6 inches of my face and never even looked in my general direction. I have met and worked for plenty of politicians on both sides...never has that happened. The Donald has no time or energy for us lesser plebes...although I bet he would have fired me anyways

Finally The Donald sits and starts talking. I know some wont believe what I type here and I obviously cant prove any of it, but I am not lying. All of this is straight from the horses mouth! Ok...first he starts talking about how he looks the way he does (no tie, wearing a hat) because he was just in Louisiana visiting flood victims and giving a speech to an amazing crown of 10k people. Their reaction was tremendous and the support is rising. He then talks about how he used a teleprompter and how amazing a tool that is. It really keeps him on message and it is a skill that he is acquiring in the hopes of getting things turned around. He is very calm right now...it is unsettling and he seems almost drugged. He talks about the polls and how even though he is losing in almost all of them (even says "maybe all of them I dont know") it is actually quite close and how it is almost even. He talked about the amazing fundraising efforts and how he started out with nothing, then loaned the campaign $50 million dollars and now they are raising money hand over fist! Mentioned how in the primaries he won 41 states (and a few of "them islands") and how the next guy won like 9 and someone else won a couple or something. (you will notice a pattern coming) He had no money at first then, and this is true, he loaned the campaign $60 million dollars (you read that right) and how much support he has. Got a bit giddy talking about the danger Ted Cruz's wife was in at the convention and how that showed he was on the rise. Rambled on more on the polls and was definitely getting a bit more amped up...

To be continued!

[Handyman]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

The Donald now wants to show he is engaged with the people in the room. (it wasnt a room, it was a curtained off corner in a small ballroom but I digress) He points out the only guy he actually knows and talks about how he met TV Owner during his fight with NBC and Univision (he made them millions, while also making himself millions cause he is a brilliant business man according to him) and how TV Owner's son got the rights to Miss Universe for free because of it. He tells the story twice and repeats no less than 5 times how it must be good genes. (he originally thought TV Owner made the deal and had to cover his *** but it was a solid save) The Donald then starts to try and show he has true knowledge of Minnesota to try and appease the locals. Little does he know very few of the 12 actually live here. He starts talking about he is 9 points down which is actually quite close (a running theme seems to be that The Donald is not good with math) and how his advisors think whats her name (he calls her Stein later but for now cant place it) is going to siphon off enough votes to put the state in play. (there is ****ed near 0 evidence of that) He then talks about how his advisor knows the area well as he is from here and how he just met him and he is amazing and doing great things. He has his weasel campaign ****** (who got uppity with me cause he thought I was recording the talk despite them taking my phone) grab the guy from politicking the lesser donors and brings him into the room. The Donald again talks about the great work this guy is doing and asks him (in an effort to show his Minnesota roots) if he grew up in the area. The dudes response "no actually I am from Massachusetts...". Apparently this great guy (who Donald aadmits later he only met once just before entering the VIP room) moved here in 2014 to help with a campaign that lost, but he feels real good about this one! the Donald starts to tap dance a bit...keeps talking about how Stein is taking votes (no mention of Johnson) and how great the campaign was and how, according to everyone, the media has been more mean and unfair to him than anyone else in the history of politics! Its a true fact he says and everyone is talking about it!! Then he discusses how if he can keep making inroads and win Minnesota that opens up new doors. He then asks how many electoral votes we have. TEN is yelled by 5 or 6 people! The Donald is impressed! "TEN THAT IS A LOT OF VOTES!! We can do a lot with that and it would be quite helpful! Right now we are down 9 but that is pretty good for Minnesota that is quite close!" The Donald continues to try and show his knowledge of Minnesota by talking about how he wants to improve jobs, especially in coal. He asks (in that arrogant way you ask where you are actually stating) how important coal is to Minnesota and everyone responds that iron is the big thing here. Gut punch, The Donald needs to backtrack and says he will work to help Iron out as well. He moves on cause he has nothing to say...how can a campaign not have prepared him better? A 2 page word document with the basic knowledge of Minnesota takes what 10 minutes? The guy just made himself look like a fool in front of 12 multi-millionaires. His staff was rather silent...

Now is the time for the question and answer session. He never actually answered a question...sure they asked them but he never really addressed it. If you need to try and imagine it, think about in high school when you saw someone take debate class and they had zero information on the subject so they just talk and talk until they run out of time and pray they said something of value. A certain scene in Billy Madison is a great parallel. One lady asked how to get GOPers in Congress to support him and all he could do was talk about how he has more issues with Republicans than Democrats. Then he would talk about the tremendous support he had and how he got 14 million votes in the primaries and won 49 states or whatever number he could think of. When asked how to get the middle to vote for him he talked about how everyone is "fed up". Then he had a relevant idea and said "oh and the Supreme Court!" Yes...finally The Donald is on message! No need for a teleprompter he he finally remembered a talking point. "We need to remind people that we cant let Hillary pick the makeup of the Court...by the time she is done it could be 5 or 6 liberal judges!" Nice job Donald, some good red meat for the Righties! Time to move on...oh wait there is more! "And you know she is going to let Bernie Sanders pick the judges we know that to be true!" Wait what? We need more info..."well that is what we have been told so that is important to remember". Now he moves on...no follow up, no connecting of the dots just total BS about how apparently Hillary is going to let someone else hand pick the judges because...I got nothing.

BTW this is still only 15-20 minutes in...soooooooo much more!

[Handyman]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

The questions dry up fast and he needs to get ready for his speech at the "rally" so he tapdances a bit and then TV Guy kind of forces him and everyone to move into the other room so they can take their pics with him and he can speak. He walks by me again and again I might as well be a tree. I notice The Donald looks tired and rather ill, completely worn out and honestly I am not sure he knows where he is. This is not the same Donald from a few months ago, he knows the fake bravado may be making him money but he is losing. He is restraining himself and doesnt look comfortable doing it...but dont worry it wont last long

At this point I leave the VIP Room and move to the "rally". I put it in quotes because it was pretty pathetic. I am sure the numbers will be exaggerated but there was at most 300 people there. They were pumped up (cause they were drunk...open bars there as well) but again everyone we chit chat with seems rather apprehensive. They dont think he can win but golly do they want him too! Mark Emmert goes up to introduce them (the man who said during his campaign "Bartenders make $100k a year" after I got paid $9 an hour to work his party) and General Whatshisface comes up and talks about how in all his years the Donald is the only guy who can fix the problems out there today. then he calls out the Donald and he saunters to the stage...my bartender friend says aloud "he looks like he is on heavy medication!". The Donald speaks and again just sort of mumbles his way through his speech. He talks about how the polls have him even (though he does say he is down...not sure how that works) and how they have been raising tremendous amounts of money. He talks about how he financed his campaign to the tune of $65 million (apparently he spent $15 million in the last half hour) and how he just gave a speech in Michigan for 10k people. I swear he said he gave that in Louisiana...but again I am not sure he knew where Minnesota was let alone where he was 5 hours ago. he talks about how Minnesota is only 9 points and how if he wins that he can afford to to lose a different state. He seems bored, and tame and seriously you can barely understand him he is almost slurring his words...

And then his saving grace happens...a drunk lady yells something positive! Just when we think the party is getting lame IT TOTALLY REDEEMS ITSELF! The Donald perks up, he starts to riff a bit! It is like he realized in the past 30-40 minutes he has been someone he isnt...he tried to be a stuffy politician and he came off as a stupid fraud. Mind you he isnt going full Drumpf on the bit, but he is definitely engaged. He starts to talk about nothing in particular and it would trigger random thoughts that would cause him to turn to someone offstage and talk to them. People laughed and enjoyed the performance, it was like watching a stand up comic do crowd work. Mind you he is making ****ed near zero sense and he is saying nothing of political value but hey, at least it is worth the thousands of dollars people paid. (btw the campaign didnt even feed these people...not even appetizers just cheese and crackers! Not a good sign Mr. Billionaire!) Random people would yell out something about loving him or "you will fix it tell us how!" and he would turn to some rando off stage and say something that tangentially was related, leave the story half finished and then move on. He did talk about the amazing ad they just bought...asked if everyone saw it then turned to another person off stage and asked what the commercial was about. (apparently it is about immigrants taking a train to get into the country or something...that was all I could hear him say) Then, he just stopped talking about it and changed subjects. After 45 minutes of saying nothing (except how amazing and great things were...the dude is a walking Mad Lib) he walked off stage and slinked away. The crowd was pretty jazzed up (like a rock concert type crowd not a political crowd) but all of them said he had no chance. One guy kept saying over and over "Dump Trump" and a few ladies seemed like they just wanted to keep drinking and didnt care about Trump at all. For $1000 bucks people saw him mumble for 45 minutes, and for $1000k they heard him do it twice and got a picture...

Now I will say this, my opinion of the man has changed. He is not evil, he is just dangerously ignorant. His campaign is a dumpster fire, no one has any idea what is going on and he is so ill prepared it is almost criminal. Whats worse is he doesnt even seem to care. He talks like he is trying to convince himself things are better than they are. He overcompensates for everything...things arent just good they are SUPER DUPER AMAZINGLY AWESOME WITH A CHERRY ON TOP!!!!11! He has no idea how to make things right, the poo flinging stopped working weeks ago. Until the Khan snafu he could always talk about how his gaffes never hurt him but the problem is he crossed too any lines and now he cant walk it back. Being subdued is a great plan but everyone knows it isnt sincere, and he looks like a sellout. He has zero policies, no ideas on how to fix things and he doesnt have the charisma to bs his way through it. He is Michelle Bachman crazy and Sarah Palin dumb and he should never be allowed to hold any public office ever. He is a disaster, and not the fun kind you watch and laugh at he is like the wildfires in California that are out of control and threaten everything.

[burd]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Dam that was interesting, Handy. Thanks for taking the time to get us this account.

[The Rube]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Yes, very much appreciated. Thank you!

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Reading Handy's account of his evening around Trump (thank you for that, by the way, quite interesting and telling), I am reminded of something mentioned to me some weeks ago, that there are stories out there that Trump is supposedly using various medications used in treating several mental disorders and conditions. Trump appears to display the side effects of medication commonly prescribed for ADHD, anxiety, or depression. I could name 10 different drugs that would cause some of what Handy described that are common meds prescribed for conditions like those I mentioned.

Without doing him -- and any other person suffering from legitimate mental illness -- the disservice of diagnosing him without a firsthand, personal and educated examination by a medical professional I think most people agree that at the very least he displays a lot of the traits of someone suffering from any number of actual emotional and behavioral disorders. But in the way Handy describes some of his behavior, and how the switch got flipped, how he slurred words sometimes, how he went from thought to thought in an unfocused fashion often failing to complete any one thought, I think there is certainly some credence to the idea that he has been diagnosed in such a fashion and is struggling with various chemical treatments that may or may not be working.

[burd]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Reading Handy's account of his evening around Trump (thank you for that, by the way, quite interesting and telling), I am reminded of something mentioned to me some weeks ago, that there are stories out there that Trump is supposedly using various medications used in treating several mental disorders and conditions. Trump appears to display the side effects of medication commonly prescribed for ADHD, anxiety, or depression. I could name 10 different drugs that would cause some of what Handy described that are common meds prescribed for conditions like those I mentioned.

Without doing him -- and any other person suffering from legitimate mental illness -- the disservice of diagnosing him without a firsthand, personal and educated examination by a medical professional I think most people agree that at the very least he displays a lot of the traits of someone suffering from any number of actual emotional and behavioral disorders. But in the way Handy describes some of his behavior, and how the switch got flipped, how he slurred words sometimes, how he went from thought to thought in an unfocused fashion often failing to complete any one thought, I think there is certainly some credence to the idea that he has been diagnosed in such a fashion and is struggling with various chemical treatments that may or may not be working.

My money is on harsh toilet training.

[Handyman]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Well I would like to believe it was cause he was travelling, but I have seen political speakers before many times. Many of them had been travelling for weeks, no one was ever like he was.

In other news Colin Powell confirmed he told Hillary Clinton to use her personal email...but what the hell would he know about it anyway

[The Rube]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Reading Handy's account of his evening around Trump (thank you for that, by the way, quite interesting and telling), I am reminded of something mentioned to me some weeks ago, that there are stories out there that Trump is supposedly using various medications used in treating several mental disorders and conditions. Trump appears to display the side effects of medication commonly prescribed for ADHD, anxiety, or depression. I could name 10 different drugs that would cause some of what Handy described that are common meds prescribed for conditions like those I mentioned.

Without doing him -- and any other person suffering from legitimate mental illness -- the disservice of diagnosing him without a firsthand, personal and educated examination by a medical professional I think most people agree that at the very least he displays a lot of the traits of someone suffering from any number of actual emotional and behavioral disorders. But in the way Handy describes some of his behavior, and how the switch got flipped, how he slurred words sometimes, how he went from thought to thought in an unfocused fashion often failing to complete any one thought, I think there is certainly some credence to the idea that he has been diagnosed in such a fashion and is struggling with various chemical treatments that may or may not be working.

The simple stress alone of campaigning would affect people, even pro politicians. I wonder how some of these people don't go nuts from the grind of that. That being said, the underlined should be emphasized.

[Handyman]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Oh one more thing I found interesting...

At no point in either the VIP Room or his rally did he mention any of the Fortune 500 companies that reside in Minnesota. This leads me to believe one of two things: 1) None of them have donated to his campaign and refuse to endorse him or 2) his staff seriously has zero clue what the hell they are doing. There is a lot of money in this town and just because he wont win the state doesnt mean he shouldnt be trying to get as much cash as possible.

The first debate is going to tell the story...if he isnt better prepared and more engaged even Hannity wont be able to say he won.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

I think my favorite part of the whole story is the line, "I had no money, then I gave myself money, and now I have money!"

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

The simple stress alone of campaigning would affect people, even pro politicians. I wonder how some of these people don't go nuts from the grind of that.

This seems logical but in my experience pro pols do not exhibit nearly the kind of careening behavior Trump has, especially some of the things Handy describes and plenty of the odd things we have all seen, in the form of statements or any other behavior. While outrageous blather is sometimes par for the course when running for president, making the kinds of grandiose "predictions", like winning 95% of the Black vote in 2020 if he is elected in 2016, are a signal of something a little more serious than just a candidate running scared because his poll numbers are cratering. IMO his connection to reality is severely impaired.

[Slap Shot]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

In other news Colin Powell confirmed he told Hillary Clinton to use her personal email...but what the hell would he know about it anyway

Are you sure? The only thing I found on it is that he said he has no recollection of the conversation.

[The Rube]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

This seems logical but in my experience pro pols do not exhibit nearly the kind of careening behavior Trump has, especially some of the things Handy describes and plenty of the odd things we have all seen, in the form of statements or any other behavior. While outrageous blather is sometimes par for the course when running for president, making the kinds of grandiose "predictions", like winning 95% of the Black vote in 2020 if he is elected in 2016, are a signal of something a little more serious than just a candidate running scared because his poll numbers are cratering. IMO his connection to reality is severely impaired.

At the base, he's a salesman. He just tells people what they want to hear. Add to that the yuuuuuge ego....

I really hate defending the guy, but....

And most big names like that do have a disconnect to the common person, no matter who you are. Not necessarily their fault. It's a different world from what we live in....

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Handy, that was wonderful. I love it.